California Roots Festival Team Up w/ Redwood Forest Foundation

The California Roots Music & Arts Festival (Cali Roots) is one of the leading reggae and roots festivals in the world. In 2016, the festival's seventh year, Cali Roots sold out the Monterey County Fair & Event Center, greeting eleven thousand festival goers each day. As the festival’s presence continues to grow, so does its efforts in environmental preservation, carving the path of producing an environmentally sound event.

Festival Co-Producer, Dan Sheehan, states, “Cali Roots is more than just a music festival. It’s a movement and a way of life. It’s about developing and sustaining our community and that involves protecting our environment. More than 95 percent of America’s old-growth redwoods have been cut-down. That means it’s up to us to introduce a new generation of redwood forests, which remove more carbon from the atmosphere per acre than any other forest on the planet. We are proud to work closely with RFFI to help our environment and natural habitats that are rapidly disappearing.”

RFFI is committed to reforestation and restoring redwood forests that support biodiversity and address climate change. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees (379 feet) in the world, can live longer than 2,000 years and are fire and disease resistant. The Foundation follows the same grassroots growth that Cali Roots has strived to achieve the last eight years, making them a perfect team to continue the growth of environmental sustainability.

Lin Barrett, Community Development Director of the Redwood Forest Foundation adds, “We teamed up with community groups to plant our redwoods on an 80-acre property in Point Arena CA, belonging to, “This Will take Time,” a non-profit organization. Together we are establishing a new redwood forest. Two partners from the entertainment world made donations to support this reforestation project. The California Roots Music & Arts Festival in Monterey made a donation to support the planting of 800 redwoods- two for every Redwood (VIP) Pass sold for the Memorial Day (May 2017) Cali Roots Festival. We welcome the support of Cali Roots followers who clearly share our dedication to environmental sustainability.”

2016 saw the continuation of greening and sustainability measures throughout California Roots. Compostable service ware, bike and skate valet, free fillable water stations, local food, and volunteers ready to direct festival goers to recycling or compost bins all contribute to the Cali Roots vision of education and sustainability. Fan participation in greening efforts encourages environmental awareness to spread outside of the festival grounds.

The eighth annual California Roots Festival will take place at the Monterey County Fair and Event Center, Memorial Day weekend 2017 and plans to announce more greening and environmental initiatives in the coming months.